Printing systems known in the document reproduction arts can apply a marking material, such as ink or toner, onto a substrate such as a sheet of paper, a textile, metal, plastic and objects having a non-negligible depth such as a coffee cup, bottle, and the like.
A printing system can perform printing of an image or the like on sheets of paper, for example, by transporting a sheet of paper (or other substrates), which is an example of a medium, up to a position of a printing section using a transport roller, and an endless form transport belt, which can rotate while coming into contact with the sheet of paper, and discharging ink, which is an example of a liquid, toward the sheet of paper from a liquid discharging head. When ink, which can be discharged from the liquid discharging head, becomes attached to the outer surface of the transport belt, there is a concern that the ink may be transferred to sheets of paper that are transported by the transport belt, and that the sheets of paper will be stained.
In some printing systems, a particular type of transport or transport member, known as a marker transport, can become contaminated with aqueous ink, which can lead to an increase in frictional drag, a loss of drive capacity and image quality (pixel placement) degradation. To prevent contamination from reaching undesirable levels, a periodic belt-cleaning interval of one week, for example, and an even more extensive cleaning (e.g., ˜250 Kp) may be needed and can require a skilled/trained operator for the printing system. This type of cleaning is currently difficult in some printing systems (e.g., ˜20″ cross-process width) and the additional width associated with such systems (e.g., ˜32″ cross-process width) can make this work even more difficult and time consuming with additional risk to damaging the transport belt. Some printing systems may include a market transport sub-system located near the floor, for example, may require the operator to kneel or lay on the floor during cleaning. A 20″ width, for example, may be the widest transport that can be reasonably cleaned manually by anyone of typical arm length and dexterity.